Education, Social Mirroring, and Immigrant Students

In the United States, unfortunately, many immigrant students receive negative social mirroring from the classroom and outside world. Immigrant students tend to feel segregated and discriminated against in school. In comparison with European immigrants, Latino and Asian immigrant students tend to have a hard time assimilating into mainstream society due to their skin color. Some immigrant students believe their skin color is the barrier keeping them from fitting into the mainstream society. Some have experienced being laughed at for their foreign accents and non-fluent speaking skills. Immigrant students consider "being white" and speaking "correct," "fluent," and "native-like" English as pathways to success in American society. Their painful experiences usually lead to negative feelings towards school and then contribute to their low academic achievement in comparison with white students.

Moreover, as white students regard receiving higher education as pathways towards higher socioeconomic (highly-paid) occupation, immigrant students have a tendency to believe that many doors are closed, many job opportunities are limited, and social stratification exists in the society even when they obtain educational credentials. In fact, immigrant students tend to get low-paid jobs and the least desirable jobs because of the class stratification and restricted social mobility. Limited job opportunities may hinder immigrant students' motivation towards going to school, and they may consider going to school as a waste of time. Developing the above perspectives, the issue of to what extent formal education can help immigrant students succeed in the society should be taken into serious consideration. How can schools provide all students with a supportive environment and offer them equal opportunity for future development? Could the supportive school environment compensate for negative social mirroring that immigrant students receive from the outside world?

-YEN-LIN CHOU, ED261

Possible blog topics

For those of you still looking for a topic to post on, here's a summary of a new study on mentoring for men and women who earned PhDs Chemistry in the early 1990s. The gender differences here are pronounced, and they stretch from undergraduate education all the way through graduate school. Men report getting more help from professors as undergrads and they seem more satisfied with advising that they received from the dissertation advisors.

Do you think that these mentoring gaps persist in higher education today? What do you think their implications are? What can be done to do away with them? Post away!

UPDATE: Hey! Here's another blog-worthy article. Education Week takes a close look at the subtle differences between Hillary Clinton's and Barack Obama's approaches to educational policy. Do any of the debates that we've entertained during the course of this quarter shed light on any of the issues that the candidates disagree about?

-TD

Deconstructing whiteness

Following along with our discussion of race and how it relates to education, I just read an article called Deconstructing Whiteness as a Part of a Multicultural Framework (Rhoads & Ortiz, 2000). This was a fascinating article in that it looked at how we as educators on a university level should approach multicultural education. The authors challenge the "universalization of whiteness" and propose a framework where "deconstruction" of whiteness is important when taking a multicultural approach.

One of the main claims of the article is that "whiteness" is often overlooked as a race or ethnic identity, and that we don't talk about the social construction of the white race. The authors propose that in order to effectively engage in discourse about race and truly enable multicultural education in classrooms that there must be a discussion about white race as well as other racial and ethnic identities. In addition, there must be a critical evaluation of how whiteness has been socially constructed and become seen as the "dominant" race and associated with power and privilege. Finally, they propose a multistep process to deconstruct whiteness and implement a multicultural educational plan into college campuses.

I found this article fascinating and important because the white race is often "universalized", or seen as the norm, while not ever really being talked about. White people in America are not normally thought of as having race and the authors assert that this reinforces whiteness as the dominant culture. I agree that these issues must be addressed, in particular in college classrooms as they suggest in the article.

-JIMMY LEAK, ED261

LAUSD takes on the home advantage

By teaching immigrant parents simple ways to help their children and to reinforce what is being learned in class, kindergarten teachers at Lillian Elementary in Los Angeles are taking practical steps to reduce immigrant children's drop out rates in Southern California. Parents are instructed to direct their children in tracing numbers in salt on cookie sheets, make letters with play-doh, or simply improve children's verbal abilities through increased communication. The teachers believe that lack of parental help sets children up for a disadvantage when they enter school, so the course emphasizes parents acting as the primary educators.

I think this program sounds very beneficial as long as there are parents, like the ones mentioned in the article, who are eager to help their children achieve academically and have the time to consistently make the extra effort to build their children's academic foundation. The article mentions how the principal gave incoming kindergarten parents exercises and goals the May before the school year to help their children catch up, however when they entered kindergarten the same children were still behind. While parents may want to try and help their children, it may just come down to a time issue rather than simply not knowing how to help their children. However, if parents can make the commitment, I can see that teaching them how to help their children will be extremely beneficial and will effectively reduce the dropout rate, especially since LA Unified policy does not aid these children until second grade.

-EMMA CONLEY, ED175

A comment on universal pre-K

As the graduate student who presented on Early Child Education, it is obvious that I think your post is right on target! Early education is an important addition to the public school system (or funding system in general). First, parents (especially low-income and working-class parents) may have difficulty finding and affording supervision for their children. Second, a child's early years are an opportunity to decrease the disparities between high and low SES students. Because these disparities are seen even before entry into traditional public schooling, and because we may "harvest" the benefits of early education for longer periods of time (Heckman, 2004), we should be pushing for federal, state and local initiatives that make early childhood education a priority. Unfortunately, traditional ideas about who should care for children (i.e. Why should the "government" take care of children?)seem to impede progress towards making quality early childhood education available to all families.
One note of caution, however: It may not be true that *any* type of childcare is beneficial for children. There has been an extensive amount of research showing that only *quality* early childcare can have these positive developmental impacts on children's social, emotional and academic functioning. In fact, some studies find that lower quality care may have detrimental influences on development such as weaker reading and academic skills (i.e. NICHD ECCRN, 1999). Vandell & Wolfe (2000) discuss some of the indicators of quality care. These include, but are not limited to, low child-adult ratios, small class sizes, formal education/training for teachers, adequate health and safety provisions within the site, warm interactions with caregivers and peers, using age-appropriate materials, and involvement in language reasoning experiences, motor activities and creative activities. Obviously, the list is extensive! This may be the reason that most early childcare and education offered in the U.S. is of fair to poor quality (see Vandell & Wolfe, 2000).

In other words, not only do we need to advocate for early child care, but *quality* early childhood education. Interestingly, a government initiative that almost reached fruition in 1971 included both these features. The Comprehensive Child Development Act of 1971 called for universal funding for early child care and after-school care. It also included quality requirements and a focus on children in poverty. The comprehensive bill was certainly ahead of its time, and it was passed by both the House and the Senate. Unfortunately, it was vetoed by Nixon! If you’re interested, you should definitely take a look at this act and compare it to the segmented system we have now. My how things could have been different!

-MARIA PARENTE, ED261

Pre-school education for all!

After the presentation about the importance of early education we had in class today, it got me thinking about how much we prioritize the schooling we have before kindergarten. On edweek.org an article talks about a situation in Idaho where a movement is afoot to change state law to include funding for children less than 5 years old (a.k.a. money for Pre-School programs). The current law prohibits the use of money for public schools for children under 5.

The question is: Should we use money, coming from taxpayers, for a public system of education geared towards children who are not yet in formal public education. A survey done by a group called Kids Count suggests that the public would like to see money go into pre-schooling. I would also agree that the early we get children into the classroom, the better the entire system will be. Despite costing a lot of money, the time we spend in the early years of their development will have exponential returns. Kids Count also says that an early education could save state money by reducing later costs for special education and social services. It is shown that any type of pre-school received by a child better adapts them to any schooling in the future: socially and mentally, so this supports the idea that it will save money over time.

In the end, the responsibility lays on parents to decide whether their child needs education before Kindergarten. I would imagine the idea of free public pre-schooling is very attractive for the working class. It would give an option to have your children in a highly stimulated area of learning while you wouldn’t have to look for a babysitter. I see a trend of starting children their educational process at a younger and younger age.

-KEN RADOMSKI, ED175

Narrow economic inequality: Provide financial ed for all

Financial management is a skill is that many young people of this generation lack. Today, only 17 states require economic course in public schools as a graduation requirement, and most teens are unaware of the consequences of irresponsible spending. Educators are beginning to propose more financial education programs in schools across the United States. According to the the chief executive offer of the National Endowment for Financial Education "there's been a steady building in recognition that we need to give students basic financial skills." Although different organizations have been providing assistance on the education of high schoolers through interactive lessons, more effort is needed to assist kids to understand the concept of credit, loan, saving, and stocks. The national economy is heavily affected by financial choices people make. As a result, it is crucial for educators to teach teens about financial decisions.

The articles also points out that, "Many parents are unwilling or unable or uncomfortable about providing financial education to their own kids, or they've made mistakes themselves, or are part of the unbanked population." The lack of financial knowledge among lower class kids is a reflection of the theory of social and cultural capital. Without having parents that are well versed with managing money, kids from disadvantaged communities lack the knowledge needed to achieve greatly mobility. Because many parents do not expect their kids to be able to handle money well, their children find it hard to achieve financial independence in adulthood. People who lack such background really miss out on opportunities as well as economic success. Elites on the other hand, tend to do a better at teaching their children about investment and economic strategies.

A great way to narrow this gap is to provide financial education for pubic school kids. Instead of having people learn the hard way, funding of financial education programs is a small investment to make considering the potential benefit to the economy. Whether if it is accepting a credit card offer, buying a car, or opening a checking account, financial improvement comes from knowing all the options and consequences of different decisions. Curricula in economy will provide the much needed resources that lower class kids would otherwise not get.

-KEVIN WANG, ED175